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SARL Fighting Spirit, leading distributor of combat sports television shows worldwide, announced it has entered into a global strategic partnership with the U.S.-based Ring Warriors LLC, which produces a professional wrestling television program under the brand name Ring Warriors, based in South Florida.

Provisions for the strategic partnership include Fighting Spirit to be the exclusive distributor of the Ring Warriors program to terrestrial broadcast, cable and satellite television networks and stations worldwide. Fighting Spirit will also assist Ring Warriors in the area of international live events, by leveraging their current broadcast and corporate partners.

“We are very excited by this agreement,” said Fighting Spirit Chief Executive Officer Laurent Pourrut. “Ring Warriors is the ideal company for us to work with to position in the international marketplace. The brand has a broad range appeal to the general public and their program blends just the right amount of sports with entertainment, keeping within the spirit of old school wrestling, but for a new generation.”

Fighting Spirit, which has been a major force in international television and DVD distribution for almost 10 years, is the leading distributor of multiple combat sports worldwide. The company’s catalog contains more than 1,000 hours of HD programming that includes boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, lucha libre, puroresu and reality TV. Fighting Spirit has ongoing relationships with many of the world’s top broadcasters such as Canal Plus in France, Abu Dhabi Media in the Middle East and AXS in the United States.

“This is an exciting step in our evolution,” said Ring Warriors Chief Executive Officer Howard T. Brody. “This strategic partnership will enable us to move forward in many areas of our business all at once. When we restructured our company last May, we were a pro wrestling company with aspirations to expand and grow through creating a television program. Now, almost a year later, we have transformed into a company that produces a television show, the contents of which just happen to be pro wrestling. For us, this partnership completes that transition.”

In 2013 Ring Warriors produced and distributed its current catalog of 13 episodes exclusively through the online outlet YouTube as well as on its company Web site. Collectively, season one of the series attracted nearly one million viewers, mostly based in the United States and Canada. In 2014, the Ring Warriors show will have limited online distribution in order to protect the rights of its broadcast partners. A separate strategy will be put in place for those countries where the show cannot be seen through traditional broadcast means.

Along with the change in its delivery method, there will also be a modification to the in-ring product, according to Ring Warriors Chief Operations Officer Larry Brannon.

He said: “During season one, we concentrated on establishing our first tier talent like our champion Bruce Santee, a tag team called the Slambinos, and up-n-comers like Alex Chamberlain and JD Maverick, as well as veterans within the context of our show like Adam Pearce, Tyson Tomko, Steve Corino and the Hotshots. Now that we’ve established much of our roster within the context of the Ring Warriors universe, we are going to move toward a model that will include more matches between the top talents and have a greater frequency of that talent from episode to episode.”

While Brannon expects to streamline the current talent roster, he also plans to incorporate new talent into the mix in order to keep the content fresh. Brannon anticipates Ring Warriors will announce the exact dates and location for season two of its television production in the coming weeks.

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